Then I got a pot that I had painted years ago and washed it up and put some styrofoam in the bottom of it. Then we just threaded the skewers through the Peeps and stuck them in the styrofoam. When the pot was full I put some pink Easter grass in the bottom to cover the styrofoam. Now I just need to figure out how to get it to Colorado in one piece.
He likes to sleep with his stuffed animals so I thought it would be fun to make a pocket on a pillowcase so that my stuffed Shamu could sleep with him without falling off of the bed. I already had all of the supplies so I was thrilled that this project would be prepaid!
** Disclaimer; Tutorials are like math for me. I am not that great at showing how I got to the right place, I just did. So please bear with me while I try to explain how I did this. Having said that, it's pretty simple to figure out by looking at the pictures.**
I started by using a standard pillowcase as a pattern. I laid out my two pieces of coordinating fabric and cut them to match the size of the already assembled pillowcase.
One of the things that I did different from a regular pillowcase assembly is that I made the coordinating fabric panel about twice as big as normal so that I could sew a pocket on it before I attached it to the main fabric panel. I laid the stuffed animal on the coordinating fabric (which I had already folded over to make it double-sided) so that I could see how big of a pocket I needed to make.
Since I was using fabric scraps to make this project I had to sew two scraps together to make a piece of fabric big enough to make the pocket. After measuring how much fabric I needed, I double-folded all of the edges of the pocket fabric and ironed them. 
Then I sewed a straight stitch across the top and then I pinned the pocket to the edging fabric, making sure to only go through one layer of the fabric. I decided that the pocket needed to be able to expand but it also needed to fit only on the edging fabric. So I folded over the middle of the bottom of the pocket to make about a 1 inch box pleat. I also folded the top and pinned both so that I could line up the pocket with the edge and pin it straight. 
I sewed that pocket down both sides and across the bottom onto the coordinating fabric. Then I folded that fabric over itself and ironed the edge and sewed a straight stitch down the side, just to help it keep it's shape. Then I sewed that fabric onto the main panel of the pillowcase. I also sewed some ric rac on top of that seam to cover it up. I decided it looks kind of like waves in the water since it matches the main fabric so perfectly. Then I folded the whole thing over, with the right sides inside, and sewed down the side and the bottom of the fabric, creating the pillowcase. After sewing, I turned it right-side out and ironed it. 
My son was so excited to put our Shamu in his sleeping pocket! Since the orca show was one of his favorite parts of Sea World I think this pillowcase, and his little friend, will be loved for a long time. And the best part was that it was prepaid!!
I'm joining this party going on today;
I have done many prepaid projects over the last few months and I posted them to my family blog. I'll be updating this blog with those projects over the next few days since my family blog is going private this weekend. So.....more prepaid projects, coming right up!
